>> eric: have a great weekend, everybody. if you see marine, armed force member, buy him a drink in a bar, buy them a meal. that's all you can do. have a great weekend. see you monday. captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> bret: the debating is done before the florida primary, but the tough talk is far from over. this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> bret: good evening, i'm bret baier. the final weekend before the next step in the 2012 campaign is shaping up to be a bruising battle. as newt gingrich and rocky balboa continue to hammer away at each other. chief political correspondent carl cameron is in cape canaveral tonight, a few days before the florida primary. >> reporter: according to latino voters, they doubted the debate and them gration views -- immigration views.

>> i believe to protect legal immigration we have to stop illegal immigration. >> newt gingrich made no mention of the debate and renewed atake that naive -- attacked a possibly he said naively expect self-deportation. >> the idea that grandmother is not going to be supported and the idea he is will self-deport? this is a fantasy. >> gingrich had called romney anti-immigrant, in a spanish language radio ad. romney counter attacked last night. >> that is inexcusable. the idea i'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. recognize having difference of opinion on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epithets. >> reporter: gingrich had an off night with four days to the florida primary. asked about romney off-shore account, gingrich balked. >> i'm happy to say on an

interview in a tv show, but this is a facial debate where you have a chance to get the four of to us talk about range of things. >> rick santorum had a strong night but is hurting for cash. he is returning to pennsylvania for fundraising and do his tax return, which he promised to release. >> when gingrich defended his plan for manned moon station, ron paul quipped that a few members of congress should be shot to space. romney attacked gingrich's idea. >> i spent 25 years in business. if i had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon i'd say you're fired. >> florida's economy has taken a serious hit as nasa has been downsized. near cape canaveral, romney did not pander with projects oproject --new projects. >> in the past, i'd come here to promise hundreds of billions of dollars. i'm not going to do that. >> in two debate performances this week, gingrich had none

of the game-changing moments that were the hallmark of his performances prior to his big south carolina win. the momentum seems to have shifted toward romney heading in the final weekend. leaving gingrich precious little time to change the trajectory before tuesday's primary. bret? >> bret: carl cameron live on the florida space coast. thank you. what is the santorum campaign strategy when it comes to florida and beyond? here is correspondent doug mckelway. >> still standing after the crucible of 19 debates and following a solid performance last night, rick santorum got a key endorsement today from the latin builders association. group he spoke to this morning. >> this is the most important election in your lifetime. >> the endorsement came hours after the latest debate in which santorum delivered several applause winning lines. none stronger than this remark that sootheed the intraparty wounds. from the from the front runners. >> set aside that newt was member of congress and used skills to advise companies.

that is not the worst thing in the world. romney worked hard. >> moments later in a demonstration this he too can inflict wounds he delivered a critique of romney care. >> everybody is mandated as a condition of breathing in massachusetts to buy health insurance. if you don't, if you don't, you pay a fine. >> santorum has the knack of just falling short. victory in iowa muted by delayed recount. today's latino endorsement mitigated by loss of another. governor of puerto rico endorsed romney after santorum heaped praise on him last night. >> give a shout out for the governor who is a friend of mine. i know him and his family. we used to go to church together. >> he lacked organization to get the people to endorse him and get delicates behind him. >> but santorum may is staying power. foster freeze vowed to

contribute more. >> santorum may pin his hopes on other states like missouri to replicate what he did in iowa. he spent a year there. luxury no longer available to him in any state. in washington, doug mckelway, fox news. >> bret: it will be interesting. please join us monday as "special report" hits the road. we'll be live from tampa florida, 6:00 p.m. eastern. tuesday, of course, primary night coverage begins with "special report" at 6:00. >> president obama's post "state of the union" tour continued today. the focus was the high cost of education. but he also found time to talk to the party about the re-election effort. >> at a retreat, president obama looked toward november election. >> you have had my back through tough times.

i will have your back as well. together, we'll move the country forward. >> mr. obama called on democrats to work with republicans when they can and to call them out when they can't. earlier he rallied students at the university of michigan. at the end of a trip selling the themes of his "state of the union" address. his aides deny the trip or the address was part of the re-election campaign. though he visited five battleground states and showcase policy issues to appeal to supporters. on this day, he told young people the government should cut aid to colleges that don't control tuition hikes. >> you can't assume you will jack up tuition every year. if you can't stop tuition going up, the funding you get from the taxpayers each year will go down. >> that is an expense of the government power republicans are unlikely to go along with. but alternative energy use, roll back of the bush administration upper income tax cut that republicans call

class warfare, a rebuilt manufacturerring sector is opponent of stronger economy. vice president biden says they are politically appealing enough to help the democrats win back control of congress. >> i think we'll win back the house. you will win it back. >> political analyst larry sabato says the things that are encouraging democrats now will change by november. >> they see the republican party at the worst for the year 2012. right now, they are trying to pick a presidential nominee. attacking one another. the airwaves are filled with negative ads and it's natural to think the other party is self-destructing. it's january. >> sabato says democrats may gain seats in the house but unlikely to erase the republican 44 seat majority. unless president obama wins re-election by a big margin, which is why some republicans are nervous about making newt gingrich the standard bearer

because gingrich polls poorly against obama now. >> bret: wendell goler live on the north lawn. thank you. the u.s. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8% in the final three months of last year. the commerce department says the gross domestic product for all of 2011 was 1.7%. roughly half the growth of the previous year. the worst since the recession. the dow finished the week on a down note. losing 74. the s&p 500 was off two. nasdaq gained 11. greek officials met again today with predators as they seek a deal on debt relief. international debt inspectors are in athens to negotiate terms of a second bail-out. spain's government says 5 million people are out of work there. a quarter of its population. spain is one of five european nations whose credit rating were gut by the fitch italy. the head of the world economic forum in switzerland offered

to meet with members of the occupy movement. we will tell you about a "special report," evening news exclusive that was unintentional. that is later in the grapevine. up next, why is the u.s. threatening to cut off military aid to egypt? [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8.

>> bret: in international news, search effort resume today for those missing two weeks after the italian cruise ship disaster. a crew member from the costa concordia filed a lawsuit in chicago against the ships owners. the owners today offered lump sums of about $15,000 a piece to uninjured passengers as catccompensation. a suicide bomber blew up a car at a funeral procession in baghdad. 32 peak were killed. dozens more wounded. attacks predominantly against shiites killed at least 200

people since the start of the year. the u.s. is trying to get egypt's attention yanking on the purse strings a bit. the new leaders of the country continue to prevent american aid workers from leaving. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has an update. >> thousands converged on cairo's tahrir square to mark the one-year anniversary of the day of rage that pushed president hosni mubarak from power, the obama administration threatened to cut military aid unless democratic progress was tangible. the issue came to a head because at least six americans including the son of transportation secretary ray lahood are barred from leaving the country. in a phone interview, sam lahood told fox news they're safe, but -- >> my mind set has kind of changed since the travel ban was put in place, where we're kind of expecting the worst. there hasn't been a lot of movement. something has really changed. >> the state department confirmed that. >> we are continuing to work on this collection of issues as we discussed yesterday. we do not have progress since yesterday. sorry to report. >> in a phone call last

friday, president obama warned egypt de facto leader that the month-long criminal investigation of sam lahood'srii and other democracy building organizations would need congressional requirements were unmet and the aid would be blocked. since 1979 in the peace treaty with israel, the u.s. has given egypt an average of $2 billion a year in economic and military aid. roughly 80% of the total aid going to egypt is in the form of military grants and other help. under new legislation, secretary of state clinton must certify the egyptian government is supporting the transition to civilian government before the money is released. >> i'm not going to get in to the specific back and forth with the egyptian government. but they certainly are well aware of the certification requirements that the congress placed. >> iri was one of 17 organizations raided by egyptian authorities in december. lahood said dozen of the group from the u.s., europe and egypt are effected. >> there are 300 organizations reportedly involved in this

investigation. this is much bigger than just iri or myself. >> sam lahood told fox he and his colleagues are essentially trapped in egypt. a judge there alleges they work for unregistered group and took a salary. lahood said charges in the trial if it came to that could last a year. >> bret: thank you. activist in syria say government violence against dissenters is spiking. correspondent reena ninan tells us there are also issues of foreign involvement. >> reporter: they were greeted like war heroes, although the battle isn't close to being over. this is a syrian 3 army, a group of activists looking to overthrow syria's president bashar assad. of them have even defected from the army. >> today the group released a video showing what it claims are members of the iran revolutionary guard, captured at home. to aid president assad's crackdown on prodemocracy protesters. the men are speaking farsy.

the i.d. and passports were displayed. iran contends they were just engineers working on a power plant in syria. also, protesters say dozen of people including children were killed in the past two days. protesters call a terrifying massacre. >> residential neighborhoods were mortared and hit with machine gun fire. the city has faced some of the most severe fighting in the ten-month uprising. bodies line the ground. in an attempt to stop the bloodshed, the u.n. security council held a closed door session to discuss the crisis. russia, permanent member of the security council said it would veto any resolution that called for assad to step down. in jerusalem, reena ninan, fox news. >> bret: army chief of staff general ray odierno says the pentagon will eliminate two heavy armor brigades currently in europe. part of the defense department

budget-cutting plan. the two brigades are the 170th and the 1727nd infantry, both based in germany. the defense minister says the world must stop iran reaching a point where a surgical military strike could not block it from developing nuclear weapons. the comment was made today at the world economic forum in switzerland. word that iran may stop oil exports to european union countries failed to cause a big surge in prices today. crude futures lost 14 cents to close at $99.56 a barrel. the national average for gallon of gasoline is $3.39. still ahead -- complaints about voting rights in florida. first, is it worth it to use your money to pump up the green energy business? this new at&t 4g lte is fast.

hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks for the flowers guys. [ both ] you're welcome. oooh are you guys signing up for the free massage? [ both ] so 32 seconds ago. hey guys you hear frank's cat is sick? yeah, we heard. wanna sign the card? did you know the guys from china are in the office... [ speaking chinese ] [ male announcer ] stay a step ahead with the 4g lte galaxy s ii skyrocket. only from at&t. ♪ only from at&t. it doesn't look risky. i mean, phil, does this look risky to you? nancy? fred? no. well it is.

in a high-risk area, there's a 1-in-4 chance homes like us will flood. i'm glad i got flood insurance. fred, you should look into it. i'm a risk-taker. [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. visit floodsmart.gov/risk to learn your risk. ♪ if you're like my patients, you want to hear you've done a good job caring for your mouth. that's why i recommend a rinse like crest pro-health multi-protection. it helps you get a better dental check-up. because not all rinses provide all these benefits. so be ready for your next dental check-up. crest pro-health multi-protection rinse. [ male announcer ] try any crest pro-health rinse. complete satisfaction guaranteed, or we'll buy it back.

>> bret: the chairman of the national labor relations board said he will push for new laws giving unions a boost in organizing members. republicans and many business leaders oppose that idea. if it comes, it comes rather as the government reports the share of unionized workers has fallen to 11.8%. the lowest level since the great depression. overall union membership was up by 50,000 last year. the federal government is launching a new campaign against fraud in mortgage backed securities. those are the packages of sometimes worthless mortgages that bankrupt many investors and contributed to the financial crisis. the attorney general says he wants to expose abuses and hold violators accountable. many people contend taxpayer investment in green energy is also risky business. chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel takes a look at some of the

evidence. >> received $118.5 million department grant. now the parent company ener 1 filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. republican lawmakers call it the latest example of the taxpayers losing on the administration's green energy experiment. >> this is a jobs program, you know, according to the president, that is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and is wasted money. in a time when we have $16 trillion in debt, over 8% unemployment. we've got to have programs that make sense. >> a year ago, the vice president was highlighting ener dell as the obama administration goal to put 1 million advanced technology vehicles on road by 2015. mr. biden confused the name with another ill-fated energy company. >> we believe americans are ready to embrace that transition. you folks, you folks standing right here on this floor, enron 1, are on the ground floor of that transformation. >> ener 1 bankruptcy comes

after the failure of two other government backed renewable companies. solar panel maker solyndra received $535 million in loan guarantees and filed chapter 11 in september. energy storage company beacon power received $43 million loan and sought bankruptcy protection in october. all with taxpayer support. the president explanation in his "state of the union" address was these companies aren't always successful. >> some technologys don't pan out. some companies fail. >> even today at the university of michigan, mr. obama made his pitch for alternative energy. >> i don't want to see the wind or the solar or the battery industry to china or germany because we were too timid. we didn't have the imagination to make the same commitment here. >> energy officials say operations at ener dell will continue in the restructuring and the company is not expected to eliminate jobs at the indiana facility. but kensinger still has concerns. >> the company files for bankruptcy because they're in trouble. in fact, the interesting thin,

ener 1 made number 67 out of the white house 100 companies that are changing america. and this is a scary proposition. >> what irritates republicans is the president is holding up the keystone xl pipeline, traditional energy, which they argue would create at least 20,000 jobs and would be funded with private investment and not tax dollars. bret? >> mike, thank you. california adopted sweeping new auto emissions standards. they include a mandate to have 1.4 million electric and hybrid vehicles on the road by 2025. that works out to one out of every seven new cars sold. the secret service is investigating an arizona police officer whose facebook page featured a picture of him and several other men with guns posing next to a bullet ridden t-shirt with the image of president obama. the peoria, arizona, police officer and police force there are conducting an internal probe. how did tens of thousands of people manage to rally in washington this week and

almost no one in the main stream media notice? the answer in the grapevine. plus, jesse jackson takes on the grammys. unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance.

>> bret: now fresh pickses from the political grapevine. monday correspondent shannon bream covered the annual march for live rally that saw tens of thousands of pro-life supporters along with some pro-choice demonstrators, descend on the nation's capital. however, if you were watching the big three broadcast

networks, you wouldn't have heard a peep about the event. you would have been in the dark, too, if you were reading the print version of the "new york times." not one word. the washington examiner featured seven pictures of the event, but none of pro-life activists. until the payment was updated days lateer the only images in the slide show were pro-choice supporters. the media research center notes the tens of thousands bravely keep coming to the capitol in all kind of bad weather every january fully aware that the objective national media will pretend they don't exist. reverie jesse jackson is hoping the grammy recording academy will sing a different tune when it comes to cut in nomination category. last april they announced they were consolidating categories and linking the list from 109 to 78. jackson has demanded a meeting with the organization president and is threatening a

protest at the february 12 event. the "new york times" reports some musicians have complained the cuts discriminate against ethnic groups. latin jazz musicians have filed a lawsuit claiming the reduction did them irreparable harm. how much would you pay for a used 2005 chrysler sedan if it was driven by then senator barack obama? the owner is auctioning the car on ebay with an asking price of $1 million. so far, no bids. abc notes the kelly blew book value is $14,000. ♪ ♪ top story at the bottom of the hour, mitt romney and newt gingrich continue to slug it out. polls show them fairly close. the personal attacks between the candidates are not the only sources of contention in florida this weekend.

correspondent phil keating reports there is much debate about how the vote willing be conducting in the future. >> ♪ god bless america >> reporter: once again, florida and its election laws recently changed by the republican controlled legislature are being challenged in the court. and today in tam parks by democrats of the u.s. sub committee on civil and human rights. >> with what we went through in 2000, we ought to make it easier to cast our ballot and easier to register to vote. >> the most obvious change for florida voters early voting. which is underway for tuesday's republican primary has been reduced from two weeks to eight days. and will be eliminated the sunday before election day in november. in 2008, barack obama and democrats benefited by a surge in minority votes on that sunday. >> anytime you get a law that reversed to reduce the number

of persons in this case who can vote, of course. that is jim crow another his best. jim crow, the wife, the children, and all of them. the whole jim crow family. >> republicans say this is not some master plan to suppress democratic votes. many g.o.p. lawmakers are not talking because they're under subpoena. but the party chairman says the changes are about saving tax dollars and reducing voter fraud. >> if citizens don't have faith. in one election, one vote, then it has no meaning. no value. >> in protest has for the first time in 72 years suspended voter registration. >> the impact so far has been to create 10% drop. 10-point drop in the percent of registered voters in our state. >> study last fall by the liberal leaning brennan center for justice, found 15 states change election laws that

could impact 5 million voters in november. among changes requiring a government photo i.d. or proof of citizenship to vote. >> the idea that requiring an i.d. to cast a ballot which is the most important thing we do in this country, that is suppressing a vote is absurd. >> the lawsuit by the league naacp and aclus still in discovery phase. another review required under 1965 voting rights act for all southern states with a history of voter discrimination is ongoing in the nation's capital. three-judge panel is expected to rule this spring with plenty of time before november. in tampa, florida, phil keating, fox news. >> bret: we will talk about the heated florida primary and the rest of the 2012 news when the fox all-stars join me after the break. drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit

plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. i'm bidding on a 1979 dukes of hazzard lunchbox, but my auction ends in 15 seconds ! even worse, my buddy's bidding on the same lunchbox. it's airbrushed ! but i've got verizon 4g lte. it's so fast that i can outbid him at the last second. i got it ! yes, i won ! woo hoo ! it's got a thermos ! rely on verizon 4g lte. because only the fastest survive.

you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job. so why are you doing his? only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn is actually something more serious... like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach acid can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only provides 24-hour heartburn relief, but can also help heal acid related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. let your doctor do his job, and you do yours. ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

i thought it was a delightful debate. i loved it. you were energetic and part of that debate. thank you. >> i think there are a bunch of folks represent the old order, they attack ronald reagan in 1980 the same way. they are looking at a national poll that shows me ahead of romney 52-39 in a go-way race. recognizing if i come back as president i will be for dramatic bold change. they're terrified. >> romney and gingrich today in florida. romney referring to the debate as delightful. newt gingrich not so much. he said this -- it's the most blatantly dishonest performance by presidential candidate i've ever seen." look at the latest poll. quinpyiac poll romney 38%, gingrich at 29%. the rest of the feel there. the sunshine state news, vss

poll and vss is republican firm. romney 40, gingrich 31. real clear politics average, this averages the recent polls. there you can see the spread, 38.7. 31.5. with that, let's bring in the panel. jonah goldberg. liz melantes. seasonedcated columnist charles krauthammer. jonah, start, reaction to the bait and fall-out today. >> i thought it was romney's best debate in a long time. the most important performance in a long time. i thwarted the momentum. in large part with assist on rick santorum with a better performance and stole newt's shtick in a lot of ways and help romney in the process. the audience, the gingrich campaign is saying that the

audience was packed with pro-romney people. it wouldn't surprise me if that happened but who cares. before newt complained that audiences weren't allowed to cheer. i like to be pro-gingrich in any respect but i think that romney doing what he had to do. >> bret: for the previous debate, the republican party in the states has been in charge of the ticketing. i think that was the case last night that the florida g.o.p. who sat where was the party. play a back and forth on the issue of fannie mae and freddie mac between gingrich and romney. >> we discovered to our shock, governor romney owns shares of fannie mae and freddie mac. governor romney made $1 million off of selling that. >> i don't own in stock in either fannie mae or freddie mac. there are bonds the investor held in mutual funds.

i know that sounds like an enormous revelation. but have you checked your own investment? you also have investments in mutual funds. that invest in freddie mac and fannie mae. >> bret: your reaction to the exchange? >> a terrible moment for gingrich. putting aside the question of voters are going to relate to this back and forth over who has what investments. >> bret: or a blind trust -- >> not something most voters can relate to. putting it aside, a terrible moment for gingrich. he wasn't ready for it. how could you not have been ready for that? this is something you have attacked for days. it was characteristic of the whole debate. romney was successful not just attacking gingrich in the previous debate but cornering him in many instances. a strong debate for romney in that sense. i want to make a quick point.

another reason strong debate for romney for the first time in the while he got to right of gingrich on a number of issues. because it's florida and gingrich really tried to stake out some ground for political reasons on issues like immigration, like space, he really left himself vulnerable to romney attacking him from the right. that is a big reason that romney was energize at the debate and energized the crowd at the debate as well. >> the winner on point is santorum. he had a great night. he not only hammered romney, the weakest moment he had santorum went after hum like a prosecutor. >> bret: let me play sound bite from that exchange. >> what mitt romney just said is that the government-run top-down medicine is working well in massachusetts and he supports it.

that means going up against barack obama who claims that top-down medicine doesn't work and we should repeal hecht will say wait a minute, governor, you said that the top-down government-run medicine in massachusetts works well. folks, we can't give this issue away in the election. >> after 18 debates, somebody finally placed the issue in front of romney. in a way that was so stark and clear he didn't have a good answer. surprised that it took 18 debates. the problem for santorum he was the undercard. he really is not, he is going home to his home state. he is not going to be in florida tomorrow. he has given up on it. he will be hanging in there. the main event was romney-gingrich. in that battle no muss. a moment that gingrich asked for a truce. he was on the warpath in south

carolina. romney said no. you said something about the offshore accounts and now you don't want to talk about it. he insisted on the battle continuing. that was an important moment. >> bret: is it your sense that gingrich came in that debate with the strategy that they think i'm going to go all south carolina on them. and i'm going to try to play back and be calm. and above this. do you sense that was the strategy? >> if he had one. newt has the confidence of thinking he doesn't have to have strategy or game marine. he can go to a playoff game or wing it. he's winging it all his life. intelligent and agile in debate. thought he could do it. if he had a plan, it looks as if i'll play statesman, ahead now and losing steam. i don't have to do the fighting and i did it before. did well. he looked uncertain. romney had assurance. that was the key. a week ago on his wealth and

on attacking gingrich he looked hesitant. looked as if he was hiding stuff. south carolina debate looks as if when he attacked gingrich look like a guy showing up to a street fight in three-piece suit and sort of feeling it's beneath him. he went after gingrich with energy and assurance. that is what i think swayed the crowd. >> i heard a lot of analysts today say it seemed like romney got to the issue of accepting his wealth in a public way. that was okay with people. >> yeah. charles hit on a key thing. one reason why gingrich is surging the way he has been there is a flop sweat panic. part of a lot of conservatives that oh, man, romney may not be up to the job. if he can't put gingrich away, what are we going to do? the whole campaign rationale is electable, electmable. he wasn't looking electable.

this was the first time that he offered reassurance he can fight it out. part of it came to grips with i'm a rich guy. important part of it. >> bret: back to santorum. you look at his campaign strategy and essentially, if they do each other harm and unfavorables go up and somebody implodes. then i'm there. where is the strategy after florida? >> you are already hearing is he angling for a v.p. slot? >> tough healthcare debate if it was for v.p.? >> i agree. i think santorum's problem, he has had many strong debates. this is not the first one where i thought he was strong. there were some early on he

didn't get attention for it. he comes across sincere. he's very smart and knows the issue. the problem for santorum is the stature gap problem. he doesn't quite come to that same level where voters can say he could go toe to toe with the president and credible. newt gingrich for foibles doesn't have the stature gap problems. >> bret: ron paul, most likable, most one liners, most consistent on his message. not a lot of foreign policy last night. a lot of people said i like this guy 67 >> he had a great answer. what would you do on the phone with raul castro, he said i'd ask him why did you call? that was not a prepared answer but he gave it in a whimsical half-wink. that is sort of likable about him. that is why i think it takes the essential off of a lot of his more extreme opinions. he's a guy that is really hard not to like. >> bret: next up, the friday lightning round.

>> bret: every week viewers vote on your choice online in our friday lightning round poll. this week, close all day. finally, jonah's pick won with 46% of the vote. >> my reaction was the moon people voted against me and now they must be punished. i decided in the spirit of unifying the base, we're going to talk about the moon. >> bret: okay. with that, we'll play this sound bite. take a listen. >> by the end of my second term. [ cheering ]

we will have the first permanent base on the moon. and it will be american. >> if i had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put colony on the moon i'd say you're fired. >> i don't think we should go to the moon. i think maybe we should send some politicians up there. >> bret: okay. what about it, jonah? >> politically crazy for him to do it. lunacy, shall we say. at the same time, budget crisis and he has a reputation for being grandiose. same time, i find it sad how much people are mocking it. because, going to the moon, having moon base would have a wonderful thing. the crazier thing in the statement is he talking about his second term already. >> bret: liz? >> i agree. i think the biggest problem we have seen with gingrich and you see it often with politicians when he gets proved wrong, sometimes there is a tendency to double down and say no, really, i'm right. you are wrong to be mocking me on this. this is one of those areas he

needed to let it go and back away. the whole line of attack from the romney campaign is this guy is crazy. you know, it's not helpful to have him then out there throwing ideas to feed that image. >> charles? >> i want to commend jonah on a clean campaign he ran, considering that the moonies went so negative, showing huge holdings in green cheese. i thought that was really underhanded. look, as you know, i'm a moon guy. i believe in the space program and i would have hoped that obama hadn't canceled constellation that would have had us with at least return trip by 2020. having a base with 1,000 people on it, really is out there. i think that the reason it hurts newt is it plays in the stereotype of a guy who has ideas that are out there. i mean, i think he might have jumped the shark with this one. >> bret: next up, egypt. the situation there, the administration threatened to cut off military aid, unless the democratic process in egypt is tangible. meantime, the son of the

transportation secretary ray lahood is being barred from leaving there. what about this, and the situation in egypt. charles? >> puzzling. the only explanation is the military thinks the future is in alliance with the islamist who won huge majorities in the parliament. the pesky liberal urbanites who started the revolution that get less than 10% of the vote are an irritant because those guys go after the street and demonstrate for a quicker process whereas the islamists are patient and willing to share power with the military so they are trying to crack down on the liberals and the americans and others who help them. otherwise it makes no sense at all. >> bret: liz, thousands converged on tahrir square to mark the one-year anniversary of that day of rage that pushed hosni mubarak out. >> yeah. i mean, i think all of this just emphasizes the fact that this is still an ongoing story. we have don't know yet where the arab spring is taking us. what kind of future it's going to unfold there. i would just say that this

particular story i think has just highlighted for many americans the fact that we are giving $1.3 billion in aid to egypt every year. and that is something that has come up occasionally in republican debates. and you know, may come up again in the general election. >> bret: jonah? >> first, say the international republican institute in the democratic opposite do fantastic work. these are not people trying to undermine or not radicals. they're doing fantastic work to support democracy. shame what is happening there. it shows that the arab spring may be moving to muslim winter, where you have the muslim brotherhood, basically the moderates in the parliament. the people including myself who have higher hopes for this may be a long slog. >> down the row. the president and the democratic retreat, caucus retreat in maryland. saying basically, i've got your back. here we go. what about his message to the democrats? >> message is keep doing what you're doing. been over 1,000 days since we

had a budget from the senate. pep talk. nothing serious about it. >> bret: liz? >> if anyone made news out of that maybe it was biden with his remarks that he and the president decided that the standard for judging the economy was whether people sitting at the dinner table could say, "honeybe it's going to be okay." >> say it in an indian accent? >> i wasn't there. >> bret: develop. charles? >> the other item he said to take back the house. he said it six months ago that would have been idle boast. now it could be possible. the democrats are enjoying watching the self-destruction on part of republicans, and this could be their high point of the year. >> bret: a lot of time between now and the convention. >> precisously. >> bret: that is it for the panel. stay tuned for analysis of republican establishment reaction to possible gingrich win in florida. managing my diabetes is part of my life,

between taking insulin, testing my blood sugar. is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah. and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get some right now. or you can call or click today and get strips and a meter fr. test easy.

>> bret: we just found out in the break there actuality was a campaign to get the votes. congratulations, jonah. there has been a lot of talk from the gingrich campaign and supporters having it out for the former speaker. no doubt a number of republics around washington and around the country have not hidden their concern. this is one analyst's assessment. >> if newt gingrich is able to win the florida primary, you will see a panic and a meltdown of the republic establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the english language. >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> there is no english word for that kind of meltdown. the closest is the german cloustfuken. [ laughter ] >> bret: it's friday. join us monday as "special report" will be live from tampa, florida 6 p.m. eastern time. tuesday, of course, primary coverage begins with